What if I told you that you could play in a basketball tournament with a $500,000 winner-take-all prize? Well now you can! Just don’t expect to win as eight former members of the Irish basketball squad are joining forces to try and bring home the prize.

In true Notre Dame fashion, the team plans on being charitable if they come out on top as they intend to donate $100,000 of the winnings to charity.

The rules of the “The Basketball Tournament” (TBT) are pretty simple: College rules, except halves are 18 minutes, each team gets four timeouts per game, each player gets six fouls and the shot clock will be 45 seconds (except for the final game, which will feature a Fan’s choice shot clock time).

As you will see, a lot of the rules come down to fan voting.

Here is the important information you need to know.

– 32 team tournament

– 24 teams that registered automatically get in if they have the most fans supporting their team

– The last eight spots are chosen by the committee

So what you can figure out from this is we need to vote to keep our alums in. What alums are playing you ask?

– Chris Thomas

– Tyrone Nash

– Kieran Piller

– Russell Carter

– Zach Hillesland

– Ryan Ayers

– Colin Falls

– Rob Kurz

Now that you see what kind of talent that has been assembled on the squad, take a few moments to vote for the guys and help them donate $100,000 to a number of charities, including Coach Brey’s Coaches vs. Cancer initiative. CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THE IRISH, IT’S FREE

About In The Paint

Welcome to In The Paint, the official blog providing in-depth and exclusive access to the Notre Dame basketball programs. With features, videos, photos, commentaries and news from inside the Purcell Pavilion, we are committed to bringing you coverage of the Fighting Irish unlike any you can find elsewhere.